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Kranjska Gora, the oldest ski resort in Slovenia, owes its fame to ski World Cup races, taking place here each year. The resort has been a sacred place for Slovene ski fans for a couple of decades. In the 1980's, when the ski mania was at its height, as many as 40.000 people would turn up to see Bojan Križaj or Rok Petrovič win or make it onto the podium. This year's slalom and giant slalom races on 8th and 9th March will mark the 47th edition of the Vitranc Trophy, which therefore has a much longer tradition than the World Cup itself.

Not far away is another highly symbolic place, Planica with its traditional ski jumping World Cup finale events (between 13th and 16th March this year), which can attract close to 100.000 people over three days. Soon after World War 2 when the supply of world class events was poor it was the event of the year and a matter of building the national identity. Over 60 world records have been broken in Planica, including the first jump over 100 metres in 1934 by the Austrian Sepp Bradl and the first one over 200 metres by the Finn Toni Nieminen in 1994. The current record holder is Norwegian Bjørn Einar Romøren, who set the record (239 metres) in 2005.